Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/283

a 5 2 THE HISTORY/ Book I. reftraint upon monarchical defpotifm, thQ rational the manly the free inftitution of parliaments. No power but the royal could either make or abrogate a public law * Aod fixed upon this neceffary principle hangs the central balance pf every mo- narchy* But even the king could not make or abrogate a law without the confent of the country lf . And grounded upon the folid bafis of this maxim ftands all the fair ftru&ure of papular .liberty. The moft antient constitutions of Wales hare exprefs- ly recorded the exception. The terms of it carry fuffieiently or themfelves a reference to parliamentary concurrence. And we have a decifive argument for the exiftence of Britifh parlia- ments in the prefaces to the laws of Howel Dha, the moil au- thentic regifters of the legifiative authority by which they wer;e: made. We there find fix men fummoned out of every com*, mot or every century in Wales> the ^ moft wife and the moft-: powerful perfons m the kingdom, in order to meet and affift 1 the king in the great work of legiffation. The parliament: being aflembled, by common council and confent they exa- .mined the antient laws, reformed and cancelled feme*, added; others, and digefted both, into a regular code. : This, they pre- fented to the king.. This the monarch approved*,, ;ind gave it the ratifying; fan&ion of his own authority.. And both the mo- narch and the fenators concurred to imprecate the wrath of God, . of the parliament, and of all the country upoafuch of the peo- ple as fhouid violate aqd upon fueh of the kings as fbould ab- rogate any of thefe con&tutions, unlefs they were annulled in a;* council equally national as that in which they had been recently made * -J- In thefe laws of die Good Howel the curious mind is pre*- fented with a remarkable delineation of the Britifh court; ami the ftriking fhnpHcity of the draught evinces the great antiqui- ty of the original. Upon this model undoubtedly were all courts formed at the beginnings And upon this our owtt hb particular appears to have been actually formed*. Thte r6ya J msafion and its offices confifted merely of a Newadd or halt, 4$ Yfdafell or parlour, a fiwytty -or bnttery, an T&ahlfe cyr foible, 4 a C^n-